Teaching Presence Papers

The following articles which focus primarily on the teaching presence aspect of the Community of Inquiry are listed here in descending publication order (most recent at top).

Kilis, S., & Yildirim, Z. (2019). Posting patterns of students’ social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence in online learning. Online Learning, 23(2), 179-195.

Kovanović, V., Joksimović, S., Poquet, O., Hennis, T., de Vries, P., Hatala, M., Dawson, S., Siemens, G., & Gašević, D. (2019). Examining communities of inquiry in massive open online courses: The role of study strategies. Internet and Higher Education, 40, 20-43.

This paper examines the discrete learning strategies employed within a massive open online course and their relationship to the student learning experience. The theoretical framework centered on the Community of Inquiry model of online education, which outlines the three critical dimensions (presences) of studentlearning experience: teaching, social, and cognitive presence. The Community of Inquiry survey instrument, administered as the part of the post-course survey, was used to measure student perceived levels of the three presences. Cluster analysisrevealed three different groups of students with unique study strategies: limited users, selective users, and broad users. The strategies adopted significantly differed in student use of available tools and resources, final course grade, as well as the perceived levels of cognitive presence. The results also indicate there were significant differences regarding student commitment to learning, motivations and goals for enrolling in a MOOC, as well as goal orientation, approaches to learning, and the use of different study strategies. Implications for research and practice of online learning are further discussed.

Kucuk, S., & Richardson, J.C. (2019). A structural equation model of predictors of online learners’ engagement and satisfaction. Online Learning, 23(2), 196-216.

Liu, Y. (2019). Using reflections and questioning to engage and challenge online graduate learners in education. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 14(3).

This paper reports an action research that aimed to examine how the author’s weekly use of reflection and questioning instructional methods affected learners’ learning in an online graduate class at a midwestern public university in the USA. The author employed the asynchronous online discussion on the discussion board in Blackboard for learners to complete course assignments. Specifically, the online instructional approach started with learners’ initial written reflection posts based on the assigned readings and personal experience, then followed by the instructor’s challenging questions based on the Socratic method and learners’ written responses to those questions. This method included discipline-specific questioning, creating a community where learners replied to the instructor’s and learners’ questions through modelling and facilitation, and promoting the instructor’s thinking-encouraging approach. The results of both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that the use of the reflection and questioning methods was effective in engaging and challenging online graduate learners. International implications across the discipline will result from the study.

Sofer, T., & Cohen, A. (2019). Students’ engagement characteristics predict success and completion of online courses. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 35(3), 378-389.

This study examined students’ engagement characteristics in online courses and their impact on academic achievements, trying to distinguish between course completers and noncompleters. Moreover, this research is intended to differentiate between those who pass the final exam and those who do not. Four online courses were examined with a similar pedagogical model (Nstudents = 646) using learning analytics methods. The results revealed significant differences between students who completed the courses and students who did not, in all 13 variables. Completers’ learning activities were more than twice as high, except for writing in the forums. Course subject and ongoing task and assignment submissions predicted course completion, whereas, in addition to these variables, engagement with course materials and reading the forums predicted final exam success, as well. Thus, the prediction of success in final exam emphasized the significant importance of engagement in various activities in the online course.

Tirado-Morueta, R., Maraver-Lopez, P., Perez-Rodrıguez, A., & Hernando-Gomez, A. (2019). Exploring Social Network Structure Patterns Suitable to the Community of Inquiry Model Moderated by the Task. Journal of Educational Computing Research.

There are few studies devoted to analyze the relationships between the structure of the social network and performance in the online learning process as group. In this study, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model is used as an analytical framework, along with quantitative content analysis and social network analysis, in order to identify the effect of density, centralization, and centrality—of the coordinators—in the different categories of CoI model in self-regulated groups, according to the type of task. Over a period of 3 academic years, a total of 96 discussion forums and 7,155 units of analysis were analyzed, focusing on two types of tasks. The results showed that the effects of the density, centralization, and centrality of the coordinators on the categories of social and cognitive presence were moderated by the type of task. The findings contribute to identify the adequate structure of the social network for the CoI model categories and the learning tasks.

Davies, M. J., & Meissel, K. (2018). Secondary students use of dialogical discussion practices to foster greater interaction. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 53, 209-225. 

This article describes the results of a study that investigated the effect of features of talk that appear to foster higher levels of interaction, within the scope of a larger study (Davies and Meissel in Br Educ Res J 42:342–365, 2016). Students were recruited from seven classrooms across three secondary schools of varying socioeconomic levels within the Auckland region in New Zealand, with four of the classrooms engaging in face-to-face and online discussion in small groups and the other three participating as whole classes. Results indicated a significant increase in the proportion of uptake questions used by students working in small groups for face-to-face group discussions. When placed in online groups (the same groups as the face-to-face groups), uptake questions increased. Classes who worked as a whole class online used significantly more elaborated explanations but, consequently, fewer interactions—less than half as many as the small groups. The results suggest that students using uptake questions fostered higher levels of interactions in both conditions.

Filiusa, R. M., de Kleijnb, R. A. M., Uijlb, S. G., Prinsb, F. J., van Rijena, H. V. M., & Grobbeea, D. E. (2018). Strengthening dialogic peer feedback aiming for deep learning in SPOCs. Computers & Education, 125, 86-100. 

This study is focused on how peer feedback in SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) can effectively lead to deep learning. Promoting deep learning in online courses, such as SPOCs, is often a challenge. We aimed for deep learning by reinforcement of ‘feedback dialogue’ as scalable intervention. Students provided peer feedback as a dialogue, both individually and as a group. They were instructed to rate each other’s feedback, which was aimed at deep learning. Data from questionnaires from 41 students of a master epidemiology course were used to measure for each feedback assignment to what extent deep learning was perceived. The feedback received by students who scored extremely high or low on the questionnaire was analyzed in order to find out which features of the feedback led to deep learning. In addition, students were interviewed to retrieve information about the underlying mechanisms.The results support the view that peer feedback instruction and peer feedback rating lead to peer feedback dialogues that, in turn, promote deep learning in SPOCs. The value of peer feedback appears to predominantly result from the dialogue it triggers, rather than the feedback itself. Especially helpful for students is the constant attention to how one provides peer feedback: by instruction, by having to rate feedback and therefore by repeatedly having to reflect. The dialogue is strengthened because students question feedback from peers in contrast to feedback from their instructor. As a result, they continue to think longer and deeper, which enables deep learning.

Han, F., & Ellis, R. A. (2018). Identifying consistent patterns of quality learning discussions in blended learning. The Internet and Higher Education, 40, 12-19.

 

Hambacher, E., Ginn, K., & Slater, K. (2018). From serial monologue to deep dialogue: Designing online discussions to facilitate student learning in teacher education courses. Action in Teacher Education, 40(3), 239-252. 

Despite the wide use of discussion in online courses, the quality of these exchanges varies. In this article, the authors draw on the community of inquiry (CoI) model to inform the design of what we call “first responder/connector” (FR/C) discussions, which are student-led asynchronous online discussions. The authors propose and describe four instructional design features of the online FR/C discussions that aim to create the conditions for social connections that support learning in teacher education. The authors illustrate these design features in an example of a FR/C discussion thread in a classroom management course. With these features of online discussion design, teacher educators can assist preservice teachers in moving away from superficial discussion responses to more meaningful dialogue and engagement with peers, ultimately leading to greater learning outcomes.

Hew, K. F., Qiao, C., & Tang, Y. (2018). Understanding student engagement in large-scale open online courses: A machine learning facilitated analysis of student’s reflections in 18 highly rated MOOCs. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(3), 69-93. 

 

Hod, Y., Basil-Shachar, & Sagy, O. (2018). The role of productive social failure in fostering creative collaboration: A grounded study exploring a classroom learning community. Thinking Skills and Creativity. Retrieved April 23, 2018 from: https://ac-els-cdn-com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/S1871187117301645/1-s2.0-S1871187117301645-main.pdf?_tid=caab29c2-5eb9-4f4e-9a04-b621227ded90&acdnat=1524514325_ba4e6efd2f43f3a3a4455e5f0be34ad6 

This study explores the role that failure can play in the development of classroom learning communities that seek to enculturate students into the creative collaboration practices involved in knowledge building cultures. We investigated an innovative course for graduate students in an educational technologies program where students were given progressively greater social responsibility over their learning. The results of our grounded theoretical analysis elucidate three general phases of productive social failure. In the first phase, two different emergent approaches to collaborative learning – coordinated collaboration and free collaboration – were found. In the second phase, we describe four possible reasons why these different approaches could lead to social failures. These include crossing a red line, a context of growing tensions, more developed cognitive frameworks, and closer interpersonal relationships. In the last phase, we found how having learning communities work through conflicts can result in three types of creative collaboration – about the community, others in the community, and oneself in the community. This paper advances the understanding of how non-directive approaches regarding the social aspects of learning communities can be productive.

Kovanović, V., Joksimović, S., Poquet, O., Hennis, T., Čukić, I., de Vries, P., Hatala, M., Dawson, S., Siemens, G., & Gašević, D. (2018). Exploring communities of inquiry in Massive Open Online Courses. Computers & Education, 119, 44-58.

This study presents an evaluation of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey instrument developed by Arbaugh et al. (2008) within the context of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The study reports the results of a reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis of the CoI survey instrument using the data of 1487 students from five MOOC courses. The findings confirmed the reliability and validity of the CoI survey instrument for the assessment of the key dimensions of the CoI model: teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. Although the CoI survey instrument captured the same latent constructs within the MOOC context as in the Garrison’s three-factor model (Garrison et al., 1999), analyses suggested a six-factor model with additional three factors as a better fit to the data. These additional factors were 1) course organization and design (a sub-component of teaching presence), 2) group affectivity (a sub-component of social presence), and 3) resolution phase of inquiry learning (a sub-component of cognitive presence). The emergence of these additional factors revealed that the discrepancies between the dynamics of the traditional online courses and MOOCs affect the student perceptions of the three CoI presences. Based on the results of our analysis, we provide an update to the famous CoI model which captures the distinctive characteristics of the CoI model within the MOOC setting. The results of the study and their implications are further discussed.

Kovanović, V., Joksimović,, S Poquet, O., Hennis, T., de Vries, P., Hatala, M., Dawson, S., Siemens, G., & Gašević, D. (2018). Examining communities of inquiry in massive Open Online Courses: The role of study strategies. Internet and Higher Education, in press.

 

This paper examines the discrete learning strategies employed within a massive open online course and their relationship to the student learning experience. The theoretical framework centered on the Community of Inquiry model of online education, which outlines the three critical dimensions (presences) of student learning experience: teaching, social, and cognitive presence. The Community of Inquiry survey instrument, administered as the part of the post-course survey, was used to measure student perceived levels of the three presences. Cluster analysis revealed three different groups of students with unique study strategies: limited users, selective users, and broad users. The strategies adopted significantly differed in student use of available tools and resources, final course grade, as well as the perceived levels of cognitive presence. The results also indicate there were significant differences regarding student commitment to learning, motivations and goals for enrolling in a MOOC, as well as goal orientation, approaches to learning, and the use of different study strategies. Implications for research and practice of online learning are further discussed.

Nazar, H., Omer, U., Nazar, Z., & Husband, A. (2018). A study to investigate the impact of a blended learning teaching approach to teach pharmacy law. International Journal of  Pharmacy Practice.

Nasir, M. K. M., Surat, S., Maat, S. M., Abd Karim, A., & Daud, Md. Y. (2018). Confirmatory factor analysis on the sub-construct of Teaching Presence’s in the Community of Inquiry. Creative Education, 9, 2245-2253.

This study aims to re-examine the reliability and validity of three sub-constructs in measuring the level of teaching presence from one of the essential elements in the Community of Inquiry model. The measurement consists of 13 items which are online instructor capability; design and organization, facilitation, and direct instruction. A total of 1938 respondents from a faculty in a public university in Malaysia were selected in the data collection. A cross-sectional survey was applied via online survey and partial least technique was used in analyzing the data. All items were found loaded (0.746 or higher) and all constructs measuring teaching presence had high composite reliability (0.876 or higher) and average variance extracted (0.640 or higher). Thus, a multivariate statistical analysis confirmed the validity and reliability of all items.

Oh, E. G., Huang, W. D., Mehdiabadi, A. H., & Ju, B. (2018). Facilitating critical thinking in asynchronous online discussion: Comparison between peer- and instructor-redirection. Journal of Computing in Higher Education. Retrieved April 23, 2018 from:  https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs12528-018-9180-6.pdf 

The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare learners’ critical thinking and interaction during an asynchronous online discussion when peer- or instructor-facilitation was provided. Current literature on online discussion reveals a controversy between peer facilitation and instructor facilitation regarding their strengths and weaknesses. However, the effect of peer-facilitation on critical thinking learning outcome has not been clearly discussed. Situated in a graduate-level program evaluation course, the learners engaged in a debate using a scenario-based case on ethical decision-making. A content analysis of discussion using the Cognitive Presence framework and a social network analysis revealed a significant difference between peer-redirected group and instructor-redirected group in their cognitive presence as well as in interaction dynamic upon receiving the redirection message. Based on findings regarding cognitive presence level, interaction dynamic and perspective change on the debate topic in each group, a peer-facilitation approach is more effective for fostering critical thinking and collaborative discourse.

Xing, W. (2018). Exploring the influences of MOOC design features on student performance and persistence. Distance Education.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) face persistent challenges related to student performance, including high rates of attrition and low student achievement scores. Previous studies that have examined the performance of students in MOOCs have done so using qualitative analysis and the quantitative analysis of small samples. This study is the first to examine general course features of MOOCs on a large scale and to quantify the influences of these course features on student performance. Informed by the theory of web-based online instruction, this study used two-stage K-means clustering to analyze more than 200 MOOCs that had enrolled about 300,000 students, identifying three patterns of course features among the MOOCs. A MANOVA test and follow-up statistical tests revealed that these patterns of course features influenced the MOOCs’ dropout rates and student achievement scores to statistically different degrees. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Manwaring, K. C., Larsen, R., Graham, C. R., & Henrie, C. R. (2017). Investigating student engagement in blended learning settings using experience sampling and structural equation modeling. Internet and Higher Education, 35, 21-33.

We investigated activity-level student engagement in blended learning classes at the university level. We used intensive longitudinal methodology to collect activity level engagement data throughout a semester for 68 students enrolled in six blended courses across two universities. We used structural equation modeling to gain a holistic understanding of learning environments, including the influence of personal characteristics, course design, and student perceptions of the learning experience on in-the-moment cognitive and emotional engagement. To investigate longitudinal relationships between emotional and cognitive engagement, we employed cross-lagged modeling techniques. Findings showed that course design and student perception variables had a greater influence on engagement than individual student characteristics and that student multitasking had a strong negative influence on engagement. Students’ perceptions of the importance of the activity had a strong positive influence on both cognitive and emotional engagement. An important outcome of engagement was the students’ perceptions that they were learning and improving.

Robinson, H. A., Kilgore, W. & Warren, S. J. (2017). Care, communication, learner support: Designing meaningful online collaborative learning. Online Learning Journal, 21(4), 29-51.

The purpose of this study was to identify emergent themes regarding higher education instructors’ perceptions concerning the provision of collaborative learning activities and opportunities in their online classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, instructors described their teaching experiences and reported specifically about the online collaborative opportunities offered in their online classrooms. A multi-phase coding process was used to analyze the information, including the constant comparative coding method for theme and category development. The three main themes that emerged from this study are: the importance of online communication approaches, challenges and supports for online collaborative learning, and online learner support as the core of online learning. In the online classroom, additional factors must be considered in order to develop successful online collaborative learning. Beyond group work, these considerations include additional time and nurturing, scaffolding, instructional design, and understanding students’ comfort level with collaborative online work. The findings of this study are discussed, and recommendations are provided for the development and design of meaningful online collaborative learning.

Swan, K., Day, S. L., Bogle, L. R., & Matthews, D. B. (2014). A collaborative, design-based approach to improving an online program. Internet and Higher Education, 21, 74-81.

This paper explores the effects of a collaborative, design-based approach to improving teaching and learning in core courses in an online program. It describes research which tested a model for linking iterative, theory based improvements in the design and implementation of online courses to learning outcomes. The researchers, who are also faculty in a graduate-level Teacher Leadership program, used the Quality Matters and Community of Inquiry frameworks to address first course design (QM) and then course implementation (CoI) issues across multiple semesters. Results show improved learning outcomes in most core courses from this two-step process.

Saadatmand, M., Uhlin, L., Åbjörnsson, L., & Kvarnström, M. (2017). Examining Learners’ Interaction in an Open Online Course through the Community of Inquiry Framework. European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 20(1), 61-79.

Open online courses are becoming more prevalent at local level and for and professional development objectives. Proper instructional design combined with use of online tools can promote learner interaction in online environments. Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, this study aimed at examining learners’ interaction and their perceptions of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence in an open online course offered for professional development in three Swedish universities. The course was free and open to all, attracting participants from all over the world. In order to understand the online interactions of the course, three presences of CoI were matched to three types of interaction (Moore, 1989). Data were collected through a slightly revised version of the CoI instrument and open-ended questions were added. Survey results showed that participants had high perceptions of the three presences in the course. Results also yielded significant relationships between teaching presence and cognitive presence, as well as social presence and cognitive presence. The findings suggest that deploying a set of online tools combined with appropriate pedagogical approaches in designing open online courses could foster learner interaction especially learner-content interaction and cognitive presence.

Chen, B., deNoyelles, A., Zydney, J., & Patton, K., (2017). Creating a Community of Inquiry in large-enrollment online courses: An exploratory study on the effect of protocols within online discussions. Online Learning, 21(1), 165-188.

It can be difficult to foster focused and effective communication in online discussions within large classes. Implementing protocols is a strategy that may help students communicate more effectively, facilitate their learning process, and improve the quality of their work within online discussions. In this exploratory research study, a protocol was developed and improved over two iterations in a very large undergraduate video-streaming business course (N1=412; N2=450). The discussion instructions were consolidated and adjusted, and design elements such as a grading rubric, exemplary student samples, and due date reminders were added in the second iteration. There were higher perceptions of social, cognitive, and teaching presences in the second iteration, as well as significantly more group cognition within the discussion measured through a Community of Inquiry coding template. Findings suggest that protocols are a potentially useful strategy to manage online discussions in large classes.

Zhang, H., Lin, L., Zhan, Y., & Ren, Y. (2016). The impact of teaching presence on online engagement behaviors. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 54(7), 887-900. 

Guided by the Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive framework, the purpose of the study was to investigate whether teaching presence would impact online learners’ passive, active, constructive, and interactive engagement behaviors. A total of 218 middle-school English teachers participated in an online professional development course. Quantitative data were collected from an online survey and the log files of the online course website. The results of the regression analysis revealed that, by controlling for the potential effects of the demographic variables, learners’ perceived teaching presence had a positive impact on their constructive and interactive engagement behaviors but not on their passive or active engagement behaviors. In light of these findings, implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

 

Morueta, R. T., López, P. M., Gómez, A. H., & Harris, V. W. (2016). Exploring social and cognitive presences in communities of inquiry to perform higher cognitive tasks. Internet and Higher Education, 31, 122-131.

The purpose of the current study was to explore social and cognitive relationships among students when they are solving complex cognitive tasks in online discussion forums (self-regulated). An online course targeting interventions for risk behaviors was developed in the Virtual Campus of Andalusia, Spain. A total of 9878 units of meaning posted in 96 online discussion forums during three academic years (2010–11, 2011–12 and 2012–13) were analyzed through the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. The degree to which online tasks at three different levels of cognitive demand (analyze, evaluate and create) triggered cognitive and social processes were examined. The results indicate that there was a specific increasing trend in the frequency of cognitive and social activity according to the requirement of the task. This study also found that the nature of the learning task modulated the different components of social and cognitive presence in these contexts.

Saadatmand, M., Uhlin, L., Åbjörnsson, L., & Kvarnström, M. (2017). Examining Learners’ Interaction in an Open Online Course through the Community of Inquiry Framework. European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 20(1), 61-79.

Open online courses are becoming more prevalent at local level and for and professional development objectives. Proper instructional design combined with use of online tools can promote learner interaction in online environments. Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, this study aimed at examining learners’ interaction and their perceptions of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence in an open online course offered for professional development in three Swedish universities. The course was free and open to all, attracting participants from all over the world. In order to understand the online interactions of the course, three presences of CoI were matched to three types of interaction (Moore, 1989). Data were collected through a slightly revised version of the CoI instrument and open-ended questions were added. Survey results showed that participants had high perceptions of the three presences in the course. Results also yielded significant relationships between teaching presence and cognitive presence, as well as social presence and cognitive presence. The findings suggest that deploying a set of online tools combined with appropriate pedagogical approaches in designing open online courses could foster learner interaction especially learner-content interaction and cognitive presence.

Chuang, V. J., Garcia, A. R. C., Bundgaard, H., Furu, P., Bregnhøj, H., Harker-Schuch, I. E. P., & Henriksen, C. B. (2016). Visualising the dynamics of online learning communities in online and blending learning courses: experiences from three university courses. Læring Og Medier, 10(16). Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/lom/article/download/24412/22147

Zhang, H., Lin, L., Zhan, Y., & Ren, Y. (2016). The impact of teaching presence on online engagement behaviors. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 54(7), 887-900.

Guided by the Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive framework, the purpose of the study was to investigate whether teaching presence would impact online learners’ passive, active, constructive, and interactive engagement behaviors. A total of 218 middle-school English teachers participated in an online professional development course. Quantitative data were collected from an online survey and the log files of the online course website. The results of the regression analysis revealed that, by controlling for the potential effects of the demographic variables, learners’ perceived teaching presence had a positive impact on their constructive and interactive engagement behaviors but not on their passive or active engagement behaviors. In light of these findings, implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Szeto, E. (2015). Community of Inquiry as an instructional approach: What effects of teaching, social and cognitive presences are there in blended synchronous learning and teaching? Computers & Education, 81, 191-201.

Little research has been conducted to integrate teaching, social and cognitive presences as three instructional components of an instructional approach to contextualizing blended synchronous learning and teaching experiences. This qualitative case study reports the use of a community of inquiry instructional approach to exploring the effects of the presences on shaping the experiences of online and face-to-face students and their instructor. The students and instructor interviews, video recordings and class observations over an entire engineering drawing course were collected for data analysis with the use of a coding scheme derived from the presences. The findings revealed that attainment of the intended learning outcomes relied more on the teaching presence than on the social and cognitive presences of the approach. The instructor’s performance could bring about a leadership role of teaching presence as being more important than the social and cognitive presences in the engineering course. However, the instructional effects of the teaching, social and cognitive presences contributing to the blended synchronous learning and teaching mode were situational and context specific. Implications for further research are discussed.

Zhao, H., & Sullivan, K. P. H. (2017). Teaching presence in computer conferencing learning environments: Effects on interaction, cognition and learning uptake. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(2), 538-551.

This exploratory study examined how the level and nature of teaching presence impacted two online forum discussions from three dimensions: participation and interaction, cognitive presence, and knowledge development via assimilating peer messages. Effects on participation and interaction were graphically depicted. Effects on cognitive presence and knowledge construction via assimilating messages were suggested via statistical analysis, followed by qualitative interpretations. Twenty-six tertiary online learners with varied demographic backgrounds participated in the study for 6 weeks. The results showed that the nature of teaching presence in the study, specified to teacher initiation, roles of teaching presence and means of making teaching presence, largely shaped the impact of teaching presence on learning. A higher level of teaching presence was observed to be associated with a lower level of student participation, peer interaction, cognitive presence and learning uptake. Based on the results, implications for integrating and researching teaching presence in computer conferences were provided.

Clarke, L. W., & Bartholomew, A. (2014). Digging beneath the surface: Analyzing the complexity of instructors’ participation in asynchronous discussion. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 18(3). Retrieved from: http://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/jaln/article/view/414/111 

Weerasinghe, T. A., Ramberg, R., & Hewagamage, K. P. (2014). Student-led inquiry-based learning. International Journal of Education and Information Technologies, 8.

Stenbom, S., Hrastinski, S. & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2012). Student-Student Online Coaching as a Relationship of Inquiry: An Exploratory Study from the Coach Perspective. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(5), 37-48.

There are comparatively few studies on one-to-one tutoring in online settings, even though it has been found to be an effective model. This paper explores student-student online coaching from the coach perspective. The empirical case is the project Math Coach, where K-12 students are coached by teacher students using instant messaging. This research is an adaptation of the community of inquiry model to an online coaching setting, which we refer to as a relationship of inquiry. The adapted model was used to gain a better understanding of the practice of online coaching by exploring the extent to which cognitive, social, and teaching presence exists in this case of online coaching. A relationship of inquiry survey was distributed to and answered by all active coaches (N = 41). The adapted cognitive, social and teaching presence measures achieved an acceptable level of reliability. Differences between three presences, and their respective sub-categories, demonstrate a unique pattern of interaction between coaches and coachees in the online coaching environment. Findings suggest the online inquiry model fits as well for a relationship of inquiry as it does for a community of inquiry. The model provides valuable information for better understanding of online coaching.

de la Varre, C., Keane, J. & Irvin, M.J. (2011). Dual Perspectives on the Contribution of On-Site Facilitators to Teaching Presence in a Blended Learning Environment, The Journal of Distance Education, 25(3).

This study examines on-site facilitator practices and activities that support rural high school students taking online courses. We compare online instructors’ perspectives of facilitator practices with facilitators’ own reports of their practices and activities. A qualitative analysis of end-of-course interview data from instructors and facilitators was undertaken. The resulting codes were mapped onto and used to expand the teaching presence element of the Community of Inquiry framework. Online instructors perceived that facilitating discourse was the core activity in which most facilitators engaged, with setting the climate for learning being a primary responsibility of the facilitator. However, facilitators themselves reported that as well as facilitating discourse, they engaged in direct instruction and instructional design. Additional findings, implications, limitations, and research directions are discussed.

Torras, M.E. & Mayordomo, R. (2011). Teaching presence and regulation in an electronic portfolio, Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 2284-2291.

Teaching presence provides conceptual coherence to construct, operationalise and interpret the regulation of online learning environments. Electronic portfolios contribute to the regulatory process moving from an internalisation to an external regulation. The aim of this research is to analyse the relationship between the techno-pedagogical design of an electronic portfolio (Transfolio), the teaching presence focused on the use of the tool and the student regulation processes. This study analyses the online teaching–learning processes supported by Transfolio of two post-graduate courses by focusing on the technopedagogical support and on the regulation process. The nature of our research objectives leads us to use a mixed methodology based on a naturalistic observation, content analysis and comparative statistics. Results show that the teaching–learning process is characterised by the patterns of co-regulation and self-regulation. Also, results show the importance of the techno-pedagogical support provided by the teacher, not only in regard to the nature of this instructional support but also concerning how it is presented to the student and the importance that is attributed to it in the teaching–learning process, that is, what it is that assistance is offered in.

Morgan, T. (2011). Online Classroom or Community-in-the-Making? Instructor Conceptualizations and Teaching Presence in International Online Contexts, The Journal of Distance Education, 25(1).

The community of inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000 ) has been an important contribution to the online distance education field and has been useful in providing researchers with the construct of “teaching presence”. Teaching presence as described by the framework provides insight into the types of interactions instructors make in online teaching, but is less useful in helping to understand the why’s of instructors’ interactive decisions. In this study, activity theory (Engestrom, 1999, 2001) was adopted as a theoretical framework to understand the why’s of teaching presence, revealing a complex negotiation between instructors as subjects and the mediating components of the activity system. The article suggests that a shift to understanding teaching presence within a sociocultural perspective has important implications for teaching and design, as well as the methodologies inherent in the community of inquiry framework. A sociocultural definition of teaching presence is provided in attempt to provide a broader understanding of this construct.

Swann, J. (2010). A Dialogic Approach to Online Facilitation. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(1), 50-62.

Social construction of understanding has long been a significant underlying principle of learning and teaching, and while there are many models for the design of online activities to promote this, there are considerably fewer models or the facilitation of such dialogue. This paper examines some of these facilitation models from the point of view of a university tutor seeking to encourage social construction of understanding through online dialogue, and proposes an alternative which extends the principles of community of inquiry theory. It unpacks conceptions of community and dialogue in the context of learning and teaching and describes a research project whose purpose is to develop and iteratively test a professional development intervention, which will help university tutors to facilitate a dialogic approach to learning online.

Shea, P., Vickers, J. & Hayes, S. (2010). Online Instructional Effort Measured through the Lens of Teaching Presence in the Community of Inquiry Framework: A Re-Examination of Measures and Approach. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(3).

With more than 4 million students enrolled in online courses in the US alone (Allen & Seaman, 2010), it is now time to inquire into the nature of instructional effort in online environments. Reflecting the community of inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) this paper addresses the following questions: How has instructor teaching presence (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001) traditionally been viewed by researchers? What does productive instructor effort look like in an entire course, not just the main threaded discussion? Results suggest that conventional research approaches, based on quantitative content analysis, fail to account for the majority of teaching presence behaviors and thus may significantly under represent productive online instructional effort.

Bliss, C. A., & Lawrence, B. (2009). From posts to patterns: A metric to characterize discussion board activity in online classes.Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 13(2), 15-32.

Asynchronous text based discussion boards are included in many online courses, however strategies to compare their use within and between courses, from a disciplinary standpoint, have not been well documented in the literature. The goal of this project was to develop a multi-factor metric which could be used to characterize discussion board use in a large data set (n=11,596 message posts) and to apply this metric to all Mathematics courses offered in the January 2008 term by the Center for Distance Learning at Empire State College. The results of this work reveal that student participation rates, quantity of student posts, quality of student posts and the extent of threading are well correlated with instructor activity.

Ice, P., Curtis, R., Phillips, P. & Wells, J. (2007). Using Asynchronous Audio Feedback to Enhance Teaching Presence and Students’ Sense of Community. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(2), 3-25.

This paper reports the findings of a case study in which audio feedback replaced text-based feedback in asynchronous courses. Previous research has demonstrated that participants in online courses can build effective learning communities through text based communication alone. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that instructors for online courses can adequately project immediacy behaviors using text-based communication. However, we believed that the inclusion of an auditory element might strengthen both the sense of community and the instructor’s ability to affect more personalized communication with students. Over the course of one semester, students in this study received a mixture of asynchronous audio and text-based feedback. Our findings revealed extremely high student satisfaction with embedded asynchronous audio feedback as compared to asynchronous text only feedback. Four themes, which accounted for this preference, were culled out in an iterative, inductive analysis of interview data: 1. Audio feedback was perceived to be more effective than text-based feedback for conveying nuance; 2. Audio feedback was associated with feelings of increased involvement and enhanced learning community interactions; 3. Audio feedback was associated with increased retention of content; and 4. Audio feedback was associated with the perception that the instructor cared more about the student. Document analysis revealed that students were three times more likely to apply content for which audio commenting was provided in class projects than was the case for content for which text based commenting was provided. Audio commenting was also found to significantly increase the level at which students applied such content. Implications of this case study and directions for future research are addressed in the discussion and conclusions section of this paper.

Arbaugh, J. B., & Hwang, A. (2006). Does “teaching presence” exist in online MBA courses? The Internet and Higher Education, 9(1), 9−21.

 This paper assesses the construct validity of the dimensions of teaching presence, one of three types of presence articulated in Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s [Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., and Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and higher education, 2, 87–105.] Community of Inquiry model of online learning. Using items to measure these characteristics developed by Shea and colleagues [Shea, P.J., Fredericksen, E.E., Pickett, A.M., and Pelz, W.E. (2003). A preliminary investigation of teaching presence in the SUNY learning network. In J. Bourne and J.C. Moore (Eds.) Elements of quality online education: Practice and direction, 4, 279–312. Needham, MA: Sloan Center for OnLine Education.], a sample of 191 MBA students was used to test the posited model through a structural equation model. The results revealed that dropping some of the measurement items produced a stable model with good fit between the data and the model. This is one of the first studies to establish construct validity for the components of teaching presence, suggesting that it is a valid framework for studying online management education. It also points to the potential of the broader Community of Inquiry model for further research and application in online management education.

Shea, P., Li, C. S., & Pickett, A. (2006). A study of teaching presence and student sense of learning community in fully online and web-enhanced college courses. The Internet and Higher Education, 9(3), 175−190.

This paper focuses on two components of a model for online teaching and learning—“teaching presence” and “community”. It is suggested that previous research points to the critical role that community plays in academic success and persistence in higher education. Through a review of recent literature it is proposed that teaching presence–viewed as the core roles of the online instructor–is a promising mechanism for developing learning community in online environments. This investigation presents a multi-institutional study of 1067 students across 32 different colleges that further substantiates this claim. An instrument to assess instructor teaching presence (“The Teaching Presence Scale”) is presented and validated. Factor and regression analysis indicate a significant link between students’ sense of learning community and effective instructional design and “directed facilitation” on the part of course instructors, and highlights interesting differences between online and classroom environments. Alternative hypotheses regarding student demographics associated with variables such as age (the “net generation” effect) and gender are also examined. Despite recent assertions that younger students are or soon will be too sophisticated to “feel at home” in largely text-based asynchronous learning environments, no significant effects were found by demographic differences examined. Recommendations for online course design, pedagogy, and future research are included.


Kamin, C.S., O’Sullivan, P., Deterding, R.R., Younger, M., & Wade, T. (2006). Teaching Presence in Virtual Problem-based Learning Groups. Medical Teacher , 28(5): 425-428.

Interest in conducting problem-based learning (PBL) on-line has increased to meet student and physician
schedules. Little research describes skills needed to facilitate PBL on-line. In this paper we studied teaching presence in asynchronous PBL groups. Two raters, with average inter-rater agreements of 0.80, used an existing code to measure teaching presence in 62 PBL case discussions facilitated by one instructor over five years. This instructor was selected because of consistently high teaching evaluations. Messages sent by the instructor in the on-line PBL discussion were coded into three categories: instructional design and organization, facilitating discourse and direct instruction. Instructional design indicators were most frequent averaging 22.5 (SD¼5.6)/discussion. Facilitating discourse and direct instruction were comparable, 19.5(SD¼7.4) and 19.5 (SD¼6.7), respectively. Messages and indicators of teacher presence rose across time with a decline during subsequent PBL cases with the same group.

Shea, P., Pickett, A., & Pelt, W. (2003). A follow-up investigation of teaching presence in the SUNY Learning Network. Journal of the Asychronous Learning Network, 7(2).

This paper is a follow-up study to a preliminary investigation of teaching presence in the State University of New York Learning Network (SLN) [1]. In the present study we review ongoing issues of pedagogy and faculty development, and their relationship to student satisfaction, and reported learning in SLN. We provide an overview of the SLN program, and summarize a conceptual framework for our current research on higher education, online learning environments. This framework integrates research on how people learn [2], with principles of good practice in higher education [3] and recent research on learning in asynchronous learning networks (ALNs) in higher education [4]. We also present results of a follow-up study on one aspect of the model, “Teaching Presence”.

Pawan, F., Paulus, T., Yalcin, S., & Chang, C. (2003). Online Learning: Patterns of Engagement And Interaction Among In-Service Teachers. Language Learning & Technology, 7(3), 119-140

This study was conducted with the following objectives: (a) to analyze the patterns and types of collaborative interactions taking place in three online classes; and (b) to use these findings as a guide in the design of instructional interventions. Our goal is to understand the practice of collaborative teaching and learning so that assistance can be provided to support instructor efforts to include collaborative interactions in their courses. We used Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s (2001) “practical inquiry” model as a framework for the study. Without instructors’ explicit guidance and “teaching presence,” students were found to engage primarily in “serial monologues.” Based on the findings, we propose three intervention strategies that may help instructors increase collaborative interactions in online discussions.

Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing environment. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5 (2).

This paper presents a tool developed for the purpose of assessing teaching presence in online courses that make use of computer conferencing, and preliminary results from the use of this tool. The method of analysis is based on Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s model of critical thinking and practical inquiry in a computer conferencing context. The concept of teaching presence is constitutively defined as having three categories – design and organization, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction. Indicators that we search for in the computer conference transcripts identify each category. Pilot testing of the instrument reveals interesting differences in the extent and type of teaching presence found in different graduate level online courses.